Sunday, September 26, 2010

Son Skull - S/T LP

Holy shit! The Son Skull LP is awesome. Another Olympia project on the Perennial Death label (along with HPP and White Boss) Oly is doin thangs. I had seen Son Skull a handful of times and was pulled in by the energy but never particularly grasped by the music. Now that I have the recordings its all I've been listening to, even moreso than the HPP release (which was my previous favorite and most spun). The lp starts off with two blistering punk tracks "Stand on the Shore" and "Laura"; both have the quintessential hardcore punk breakdown a'la minor threat that gets your blood boiling but are just dirty, gritty, and gnarly. The last two tracks on the A side move toward a more unique musical feel that borders on some serious Sonic Youth influence definitely embodied in the first track on the B side "Perennial Death". Great stuff. The next track "Housing" gets fucking wild and is my personal favorite. Has almost an intense SS Decontrol feel but more fucked up and unsettling sounding. I could easily see Springa belting out a 'Get it Away' style holler over the first measure, it then picks up the pace and gets a bit aggressive and breaks down once again into a slow dirge, "this is my fucking house"; gets crazy and the lyrics are super powerful. The last two tracks move back to a more straight forward aggressive punk feel with a little bit of melody in a feel-good outtro; "Cement Mixer". All in all I can't stop listening to this record, it's fucking great. Hoping to get Son Skull on some shows at our house. The last time we were called about playing I was out of town skating in Canada so we couldn't do the show. NEXT TIME! Lyrics range from existential crises, to scene politics, to family pain, to poetry. Seriously an awesome project that deserves recognition.